Super Typhoon Choi-wan is formidable in these images, with tightly spiraling bands of clouds and a distinct eye. A vertical cross section of the storm reveals towering clouds and a clear eye surrounded by dense clouds.
As it passes high above the equatorial tropics, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite collects data and images of tropical cyclones that can be used to provide valuable information on their intensity and location, especially over remote parts of the open ocean. This set of TRMM images follow Typhoon Tokage from its birth in the central West Pacific Ocean east of the Mariana Islands to its impact on the southeast coast of Japan.
Though no eye was apparent in visible satellite images, patterns of rainfall reveal a fully developed eye at the center of Hurricane Irene on August 23.